Jonas Reinhardt (US)

In his art-rock, techno experimentations, Brooklyn-based Jonas Reinhardt (San Francisco-born Jesse Reiner) fuses nostalgia for a 1970s electro past with new sounds of a hopeful, inspired present – his analogue creations, even at their quietest and most haunting, pulse with spirited rhythm and melody. Jonas Reinhardt’s newest and perhaps most ambitious project debuted in limited release in early 2014 on the Oakland, California-based Constellation Tatsu label: Ganymede, both a full-length album and an experimental film (in six connected parts, by different directors) set on the solar system's largest moon, immerses us in its deeply-textured structure and abstract, organic imaginings of extra-terrestrial life. Jonas Reinhardt’s fascination with sci-fi, the mechanizations of synthesizers, and the links between music and visual art also comes through in earlier releases on Kranky, Not Not Fun, Great Pop Supplement and 100% Silk, including 2010’s Powers of Audition (Kranky), which saw the temporary addition of Trans Am’s Phil Manley on guitar, Mi Ami’s Damon Palermo on drums and Citay’s Diego Gonzalez on bass. Along with regularly playing live sets at clubs in New York and elsewhere around the world, as a solo artist Jonas Reinhardt has recently performed at the Tate Modern, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SF MOMA.

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A/VISIONS 2
MUTEK
2015,
bogota

Teatro Municipal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán 25/09/2015

Inspired in equal measure by the throbbing urbanity of coastal cities, continental European art-rock experimentation, and improvised electronic minimalism, Jonas Reinhardt’s music transcends its influences into a wholly unique amalgam.

Armed with a battery of synthesizers, drum machines, and effects, Jonas writes music that is at times stark and spare and at others lush and all-encompassing; all the while keeping an underlying rhythmic pulse just beneath the surface. Jonas describes his technique as ‘a spirited conversation between man, machines, and the ecstatic truth of the chaotic unknown.’ Jonas carefully constructs melodies and rhythmic foundations then pushes the limits of recording to the sonic fringes and beyond. The effect is a warm, hauntingly familiar sound bounded by unpredictability.

He has released music with Kranky, Further Records, Not Not Fun, 100% Silk, Kraak, and Great Pop Supplement and has been covered in The Wire, Resident Advisor, FACT, XLR8R, Self-Titled, and Dusted among others. His music has been featured in the Tate Modern, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF MOMA, and the MUTEK festivals.

After the success of his audiovisual project "Ganymede", "Palace Savant" may be the most spectacular realization of Jonas Reinhardt's outward-bound sonic aspirations. These eight tracks draw on 14th-century architect Peter Parler's breath-taking St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. “St. Vitus is a statement to the future by the rulers at the time,” Reiner says. “It's surreal, grandiose, psychedelic—and the sheer scale of human ambition involved is almost beyond comprehension.” Parler reportedly deviated from the cathedral's initial blueprint and elevated the Gothic style to heretofore unimagined, bizarre levels. With Palace Savant, Reiner projected Parler's handiwork to Thomas Edison's era of electricity. “I envisioned [Parler] retrofitting his cathedral with excesses of incandescent light, preparing for a coming age of electronics. Palace Savant is what a contemporary electronic performance in that space might sound like.

NOCTURNE 1
MUTEK
2014,
montreal

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) 29/05/2014

In his art-rock, techno experimentations, Brooklyn-based Jonas Reinhardt (San Francisco-born Jesse Reiner) fuses nostalgia for a 1970s electro past with new sounds of a hopeful, inspired present – his analogue creations, even at their quietest and most haunting, pulse with spirited rhythm and melody. Jonas Reinhardt’s newest and perhaps most ambitious project debuted in limited release in early 2014 on the Oakland, California-based Constellation Tatsu label: Ganymede, both a full-length album and an experimental film (in six connected parts, by different directors) set on the solar system's largest moon, immerses us in its deeply-textured structure and abstract, organic imaginings of extra-terrestrial life. Jonas Reinhardt’s fascination with sci-fi, the mechanizations of synthesizers, and the links between music and visual art also comes through in earlier releases on Kranky, Not Not Fun, Great Pop Supplement and 100% Silk, including 2010’s Powers of Audition (Kranky), which saw the temporary addition of Trans Am’s Phil Manley on guitar, Mi Ami’s Damon Palermo on drums and Citay’s Diego Gonzalez on bass. Along with regularly playing live sets at clubs in New York and elsewhere around the world, as a solo artist Jonas Reinhardt has recently performed at the Tate Modern, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SF MOMA.